I recently tried cake batter ice cream for the first time. The kid in me really enjoyed it. After all, my birthday cake of choice, even still, is Duncan Hines Butter Recipe Golden with homemade chocolate lovers’ frosting. Yeah, they changed the name, but it’ll always be “Butter Recipe Golden” to me.

Now how silly is that, really? Let’s make homemade gelato so it’s made with fresh–often local–ingredients. Then let’s add inboxed cake mixand junk it up. Hmm. In a word, YES! And why? Because we can. And because some things just plain taste good even if they’re a little trashtastic. You only live once. Let’s enjoy the ride. With rainbow shots. WHEEEEEEEE!

KATTY’S CAKE BATTER GELATO

1 ½ cups whole milk
¼ cup heavy cream
1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk
4 large egg yolks
1 vanilla bean, halved the long way and scraped
½ to 3/4 of a cup (I went all out and used 3/4, but ½ might do the trick just as nicely) boxed cake mix

Combine milk and cream in a saucepan. Scrape vanilla bean seeds with the tip of a sharp knife. Add both seeds and pod to the milk mixture.

Heat on medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, till small bubbles form at edge of pan. Remove from heat. Cover and let steep for half an hour.

Cook over medium-high heat and continue to whisk until the mixture reaches 160 degrees F. Do not let it boil!

Strain through fine-mesh sieve into clean bowl, remove pod. Whisk in cake batter. Let cool to room temperature. You can make an ice bath to speed up the process. Chill custard overnight or at least four hours.

Just before turning the chilled custard into your ice cream maker, place the custard and the dasher from your machine into the freezer for up to 10 minutes. And now, time to spin it up: process according to your ice cream machine’s directions.

I wanted little rainbow goodies in mine, as I had in the cone I tried. But I learned it’s better to sprinkle the shots–sprinkles, Jimmies, nonpareils–over the top when you serve the gelato. It’s a party and you’re invited!

Okay finally got you moved over to my Feedly so I could spy on your easier, lol. I used to be on a cake batter ice cream bender at Cold Stone, but had to wean myself off. Are you trying to throw me off the wagon? Hope you had a lovely weekend.
-Gina-